JULIUS ADRIAN R. ALIP

THE Microfinance Council of the Philippines reports that its members are serving five million active clients, with four million borrowers taking average loans ofP10,000. A typical loan is given face-to-face by the account officer to the borrower, whose optimum case load is 500 clients. Traditional loan processing is labor-intensive, because banking services are brought to the doorsteps of the clients. It took decades for micro finance to reach its critical scale, with a remarkable collection rate of at least 99 percent. On the other side of the spectrum is financial technology (fintech) innovations, which is gaining traction for its cost- effectiveness and faster service delivery in terms of scaling up.

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